Don’t Play the Game Penn State… A reprinted blog by Randy Gage!

Randy Gage is a dynamic speaker and excellent thought leader. He posted a blog that deserves repeating. To give him credit here’s the link: http://www.randygage.com/blog/shut-it-down-now-penn-state/ or otherwise you can read it in it’s entirety below. The thoughts are his and for that he is given credit, but I agree with his conclusion and thought it worth sharing! Your comments are welcome

Okay we don’t talk sports or even news much in this space. We’re usually looking at principles of success and prosperity. But this Penn State scandal is so teeming with lack consciousness, I feel compelled to say something about it.

True prosperity is always a value-for-value proposition. And what that comes down to is doing the right thing.

And for Penn State to blithely go about playing their big football game against Nebraska this weekend is so far beyond adding insult to injury it’s a travesty.

Let’s look at the facts from the grand jury we know so far…

In March of 2002, assistant coach Mike McQueary then 28, entered the locker room to pick up some recruiting tapes. He heard “rhythmic, slapping sounds.” He went to the shower and saw a naked 10-year-old boy, “With his hands up against the wall, being subjected to anal intercourse by a naked Sandusky.”

He doesn’t intervene. Doesn’t call police. He’s so shocked and confused, he simply leaves. He went home and called his father. The next day he tells coach Joe Paterno. Coach Paterno waits a day, and then tells the Athletic Director.

What happens next?

The witnessed rape of a defenseless boy recruited from a program for disadvantaged youth somehow gets classified as “horseplay.” The university tells Sandusky not to bring boys on campus. No one attempts to find or treat the boy. That’s it!

We now learn that there was another incident with Sandusky in 1998. A campus detective was ordered to close the case by his boss. Then in 2000, a janitor witnessed Sandusky performing oral sex on a boy in the shower. It wasn’t reported…

Penn State University has exhibited the most grievous, flagrant and criminal behavior of a university in modern history. They let (at least) eight boys continue to be subjected to predatory abuse from a pedophile for 15 years.

And Sandusky is behind bars now, not because of any help from Penn State. It was a wrestling coach and assistant principal at a High School who finally caught Sandusky with a boy in the weight room and immediately called police.

And it could be getting much, much worse…

Zac Wassink, who’s a Penn State alum I believe, is reporting on his Yahoo blog that Pittsburgh radio host Mark Madden dropped an ever bigger bombshell on a program today…

Madden said that two columnists are investigating a rumor that Sandusky’s Foundation was “pimping out young boys to rich (Penn State) donors.” He also said Sandusky was told by Penn State he had to retire after allegations made in 1998 that he was guilty of “improper conduct with an underage male.” It’s important to note that these are rumors at this point. But Madden has been correct with other information on this scandal up to now. And it just shows how much smoke there was before this fire, that Penn State completely ignored.

Now the facts get out, beloved “Coach JoPa” is fired and Penn State students start a riot in protest. Are these kids the most naïve, clueless, and ignorant students in the world? This is the higher education Penn State is supplying them?

Now those same kids are fired up and want revenge by crushing Nebraska in their big rivalry football game this weekend…

Think of the worst sports scandal you can ever think of: Recruiting bribery, fixed football matches, crooked jai alai players, the Chicago “Black Sox.” They wouldn’t even rate a footnote on this.

What we are seeing unveiled here is the worst sports scandal in history. Because we’re not talking about throwing games, making bets, or enriching bank accounts. We’re talking about evil, horrific abuse of defenseless children. And one of the most powerful institutions of higher learning in the land, turning a blind eye to their anguished cries for help – so as not to risk their cash-generating, powerhouse football program, with lucrative television rights deals. It is absolutely sickening, the disgusting demonstration of lack-centered, anti-humanity and thus anti-prosperity consciousness I can conceive of.

Except this…

Now the student body wants to rush into the stadium this weekend, trot out the mascot, scream with the cheerleaders, and sing the fight song with the marching band, as the coaches scheme the passing routes to try and beat Nebraska.

Do the right thing Penn State: Forfeit the game.

Cancel the rest of the season perhaps. Help locate those kids and get them some help. Raise awareness for the issues of sexual predators. Maybe schedule some extra classes and start teaching your students about principles like doing the right thing, and looking out for those that can’t take care of themselves, instead rioting to protest your coach losing his contract.

A scoutmaster once molested me when I was young. And I have to tell you that the man who was my unofficial step-father at the time, kind of brushed it off. I didn’t go on any more camping trips and was never left alone with him, and quit soon after.

In this case it was a sick man fondling a prepubescent boy one time. I moved on, and it didn’t scar me for life. But that man should have been stopped and I shudder to think how many other boys he continued to prey on.

I come from a pretty simple family and we didn’t know how to deal with issues like that, just as it’s likely the families of these eight boys didn’t know how to deal with this.

But we need to hold Penn State to a high standard here. This was wanton, systemic neglect of kids from an institution charged with safeguarding them. Those kids were sacrificed on the altar of multi-million-dollar television contracts.

Pomp and circumstance, cheerleaders and marching bands – a football game this weekend? Is that the message you really want to send? The kids – all of them – deserve better.

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